my views on the local news in Minnesota

March 26, 2009

Here's Some Good News

In these days when we are constantly inundated with bad news and
many of us are convinced that the destruction of our country is at
hand, I read some good news today.

We have a constitutional right to give the finger to a police
officer, as well as to another driver who blocks access to a parking
space that we are backing into. At least according to a federal
district court judge in Pittsburgh.

So what happened? The judge, David Stewart Cercone,
ruled that the gesture twice demonstrated by Hackbart does, in fact,
constitute speech protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution:

Hackbart, in this instance, was expressing his
frustration and anger when he gestured with his middle finger to both
the driver behind him and to Elledge. Both gestures are protected
expressions under the First Amendment, unless they fall within a
narrowly limited category of unprotected speech such as obscene speech
or fighting words.